A writer must “know and have an ever-present consciousness that this world is a world of fools and rogues… tormented with envy, consumed with vanity; selfish, false, cruel, cursed with illusions… He should free himself of all doctrines, theories, etiquettes, politics…” —Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?). “The nobility of the writer's occupation lies in resisting oppression, thus in accepting isolation” —Albert Camus (1913-1960). “What are you gonna do” —Bertha Brown (1895-1987).

Friday, November 15, 2013

Proposed State Legislation Looks to Abolish Illinois Charter School Commission

“State
Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora) wants to take away the Illinois State Charter
School Commission’s power to overrule local school boards if they reject
proposals from charter firms trying to set up new schools in their
districts.

“On November 7, Chapa LaVia introduced a bill
in the state House, HB
3754, that would essentially do away with the independent charter
authorizer by repealing provisions involving the commission from Illinois’
Charter Schools Law of the School Code and the State Finance Act. The
state legislature created the independent commission, which is responsible for
authorizing high-quality charter schools in the state, back in 2011. The
commission, which is comprised of nine members nominated by Gov. Pat Quinn and
appointed by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), is also tasked with
considering new charter school appeals and charter application renewals.

“ISBE authorized charter schools prior to
Illinois’ Charter School Quality Act, SB
79, and the legislation that created the charter commission. State Sen.
Heather Steans (D-Chicago) and former state Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood),
now the Cook County Recorder of Deeds,
sponsored that measure in their respective chambers. The charter-authorizing
responsibility would go back to the ISBE under Chapa LaVia's proposed bill. No
other House lawmakers have signed on to the measure thus far, but Chapa LaVia
said state Rep. Robert Pritchard (R-Hinckley) is set to be added as a
co-sponsor soon.

“Chapa LaVia said she wants to remove the
commission altogether because it was created way too prematurely. The
representative said she is introducing the bill now to start a discussion, ‘because
if I don't do something drastic here, then people are not going to understand
the severity of what's going on in the state if we don't do what we need to do
now with these entities called charter schools.’

‘“I don't think people in my world, the
General Assembly world, understand to the fullest what a charter school is
today,’ Chapa LaVia continued. ‘Everybody thinks that charter schools are doing
great, and that's not the true reflection of what exactly is happening.’

“Proponents of charters say the schools,
which are independently run but receive public money and often raise private
funds through foundations and philanthropists, provide families with
alternative school choices. But charter opponents say they've been hijacked
by corporate interests. Some education activists have said the charter
school commission's main objective is to override
charter denials in an effort to expand privatized education in Illinois.

“John Laesch of Northern Illinois
Jobs with Justice, a suburban group that’s been pushing
back against the commission, applauded the new bill, saying ‘a lot of
people feel that their school board should be under local control’ because
school board members are ‘really competent people [and] real, true public
servants.’ School board members ‘really care about the community and are
putting these charter schools to their tests ... and protecting their district
and protecting the taxpayers,’ Laesch said, adding that the charter
commission’s override power goes against the ‘Democratic system of government...’”

1 comment:

from Patricia Herrmann:The original Illinois bill authorizing the State Charter Schools Commission was modeled on a bill produced by the "bill mill," the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that creates bills to forward a corporate agenda in statehouses across the USA. It is an end run around the decisions of locally elected school boards and is entirely unnecessary except to sidestep local democracy. The Illinois Charter School Commission Chairman is Greg Richmond who is also president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers which promotes charter schools nationally, an inherent conflict of interest. Local control of our schools has been a value in our country for centuries as is democracy. This commission needs to end.

Teacher/Poet/Musician

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Persona

"I want everything to be explained to me or nothing. And reason is impotent when it hears this cry from the heart. The mind aroused by this insistence seeks and finds nothing but contradiction and nonsense" —Albert Camus (1913-1960).